PRESENTATION
Spirits of the Mind
Santiago College One & Only
Santiago College One & Only
The following content is a brief synopsis about the mural emplacement in the future Dining Hall. In virtue of its two storey construction and double height atrium over 10mt high, an extraordinary display where a 5mt high by 30mt long wall is being projected. This mural which will accompany you every day has for objective to materialize the spirit and tradition of the school; combining a historical vision of the old Lota school campus with a contemporary vision associated to the morphological surrounding of the new Los Trapenses campus.
One of mankind constant traits, visualized from their civility, has been the need and permanent desire to materialize images which had an inherent meaning to life and death. A ritualistic act which allowed capturing the essence of all things in the measure they represented the perpetuity of our existence; thus creating a notion of eternity as a manifestation of transcendence. We have already observed how more than 45.000 years ago, Australian aborigines were able to make transmissible through a rich and multifaceted iconography, a millenary culture which enigmatically survives until today. If clearly the contributions of the Jawoyn people to humanity have not being great monuments such as pyramids, temples or cathedrals, their contribution has been to survive as a living culture until present day, translating into one of the oldest living cultures in the world.
CULTURAL VALUE
Some of us may ask ourselves, in which way does the above affect us? The miracle of such testimony whose latest archeological findings were made in Northern Australia in 2006, have allowed to open an enormous gap about the evolution of language and its relationship to contemporary anthropological phenomena. Paradoxically nowadays, the opposite is being observed, meaning how in an alarming manner do to cultural homogenization, we humans are losing or disregarding an ontological value of language. In this respect, the potential to observe and project oneself in the future is lingered to our memory capability and deepness associated to language. We can think of it, as a structure of thought allowing the world of ideas through a notion of abstraction. Without it, all cultures which identify our historical roots would cease to exist. From this point of view, the aborigine contribution to humanity is unmatched.
Based on the exposed premise, is how different levels of societal organizations characterized by modern world, seek the way of being perpetuated through its significance and constructive outlook for society. Although it may require a great deal of effort and perseverance to perpetuate the above, thus creating each day a greater human knowledge specialization; also a space of reflection is created not only to harvest and enjoy achieved goals, but also to commemorate and give the right recognition that not all of the accomplished for our own good was in vain.
“Financial Santiago 2011”: photographic study which illustrates the exponential growth of class A office buildings, principally in the new financial districts of Providencia, Las Condes and Vitacura respectively. It’s ranking for most attractive cities for new business opportunities in Latin-America according to American Economy magazine is usually fighting in the top three positions together with Sao Paulo and Miami. The above has a direct relationship with life quality the city can offer together with the fact of the quality of educational establishments where the future Los Trapenses Campus will be a first choice reference.
STRATEGIC VISION
When I was invited to participate at Santiago College “Los Trapenses Campus Project”, the first thing that came to my mind was precisely the above. A prestigious academic institution of great tradition in what was countless generations of woman leadership and later on, the institution was able to bet on a successful co-education project. Today it literally finds itself in a decisive moment of creating a quantum leap. When I mean quantum, I am not referring only to the thousands of squares meters which are currently under construction or the outstanding sporting complex which speaks for it, but more of a qualitative aspect lingered to the genesis of an unprecedented educational project. An infrastructural model profiling parameters never seen before in what schooling establishments is concerned in Chile, in addition to the fact of achieving quality standards which will be at the vanguard of Latin-America.
Its emplacement, which is conceived with more than 45.000 square meters of construction and more than 55.000 square meters of green areas; is not a mere casualty for La Dehesa District as much as the complexities associated to its community impact assessment and environmental impact evaluation. All things considered, the applied resourcefulness will create in no doubt a before and after in virtue of unprecedented strategic planning for schooling establishment. Although the new premises required coordination with Monte Tabor and Everest schools as a result of its roadwork mitigation; the larger framework is directly related to Santiago as a future financial capital in Latin-America. Clearly the demand for co-ed bilingual schools, in addition to the specific characteristics of an institution like Santiago College, allows the city to project itself in more realistic fashion in view of the new international scenario. In the evaluations and index comparisons to which Latin-American capitals are yearly exposed too, it’s precisely the described scenery as a form of added value in order to justify Santiago as a possible candidate for new business centers that seek and expect for sustainable life quality.
“Latin-America Presence”: epic work of Mexican muralist Jorge González Camarena inaugurated in 1965 at the University of Concepción Fine Art Museum (Pinacoteca Casa del Arte) whose outstanding characteristic is how the mural piece is an integral part of the building´s architecture. In an unprecedented manner, the architectural design was adapted to the specifications of the mural. This fact together with its pictorial conception represents one of the most significant examples of permanent public installations in Chile in addition to what has been its transcendence in time.
THE ARTWORK AND ITS TRANSCENDENCE
From there on comes the first interrogation in how the alleged event needs to be perpetuated and at the same time, how it can be reflected at the level of the school’s patrimonial legacy. Furthermore, it can be stated that the required coordination with the construction of the new school anywhere from its architectural planning which incorporated novelty geothermic energy systems with Passiv Haus certification all the way to the extent of an Urban Transportation Impact Study (EITSU), speaks of a level of benchmarking similar to the standards of school building construction normative currently used in Europe. Nevertheless and in spite of unquestionable benefits which carry the new model, there are certain things which are intangible like the spirit of the former school. Something one can breathe through its monastic corridors in the old house of Los Leones Avenue. Am I willing to sacrifice it for a better future? Maybe the question many addressed during its consensual process, leaving us in the predicament of how can I make it transmissible for future generations.
If I needed to give an insight as to what would be the value and meaning of an allegoric mural artwork destined for the new premises, the answer would draw ones attention in the form of a collective memory which would allow us to travel in time. Something which Gauguin defined about painting as the past, present and future contained in one visual plane. The conception of a great image which is part of an interior architecture, whose emplacement is understood as a form of a habitat, a space of convergence, a place with a sense of coexistence. It’s a universe within another universe, reason why it’s monumental character because it needs to be enclosing, breathable; something which forces us to change every day. The same way each teacher expects from their students to be a better person every day. That is the ulterior meaning of education. Therefore the mural installation also has a pedagogical aspect circumscribed to an artistic expression. In other words, it’s a language, a visual mechanism which transcends beyond its immediacy. It isn’t a billboard or a marketing strategy, neither an element of design for decorative purposes. It’s a work of art which establishes different levels of interaction with its spectator making out of it, an unpredictable experience; something profoundly human.
MISSION
Conceive a visual art project to heighten and
make extensive the role of Santiago College
at the moment of implementing its educational project
at the new Los Trapenses Campus.
make extensive the role of Santiago College
at the moment of implementing its educational project
at the new Los Trapenses Campus.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Proposal’s context and content: in view of the paradigm which represents Santiago College Educational Foundation whose trademark has been a sustainable educational program where its accreditations and standards of quality leave the institution at the vanguard of Latin-America, three critical aspects are considered inherent to the allegorical work so much in its iconographic content as in its emplacement context.
Reciprocal patrimonial value: The tradition which represents a mural work at the interior of a building as part of an institutional legacy also can be viewed that work itself as an artistic conception, also irradiates or amplifies the patrimonial value of the same institution.
The work of art as a landmark of institutional history: All artistic manifestation, particularly of institutional nature, is the reflection of a historical moment which faces significant changes, the advent of a new model.
Visual thinking as a vehicle of reflection and media: The project seeks more than a media oriented resort; a level of deeper cognition which will eventually stimulate our own capabilities of visual thinking.
The urban layout and architectural model associated to Los Trapenses campus educational complex presents itself with new parameters of communal insertion which requires submitting the proposal under certain considerations:
The project’s architectural conception is based on the morphological aspects of its surrounding landscape, something which necessarily needs to be represented or considered for the mural´s general design as a visual experience which harmonizes with its different organic components.
The experience of a student after contemplating for more than twelve years during his or hers schooling years will have an important repercussion in what could be understood as a visual language maturity, specifically a stimulus to a new form of visual thinking.
The iconographic construction is based on this principle in how through the use of graphic language, a regenerative phenomenon can be produced so the spectator in time, can grow together with the work of art in its reciprocal relationship of the observer being observed.
SPIRITS OF THE MIND MURAL EMPLACEMENT
Dining Hall on site views and virtual realities
Mural general characteristics
Dimensions
5.00mt x 30.00mt x 12cm
Modular system
Fifty 2.50 x 1.20mt each vertical modules, creating two rows of 25 columns
Print type
Ultrachrome K3 water resistant inks + UV filters with 200 years + color permanence.
Substrate
Canson Infinity Museum Canvas Water Resistant Matte de 440gr / M2
Stretcher bars
22mm plywood module + Coihue wood perimeter molding 30 x 70mm
Anchoring system
Enameled steel stretcher bars with double leveling bars 1180 x 2480 x 70mm
Important to notice architectural program designed by Guillermo Rosende, gives full evidence of the emplacements uniqueness where its projection is unbeatable.
The disposition of the atrium space in relation to the two levels and the effect of a continuous skylight and lateral light exacerbate the mural’s monumentality.
At the moment of contemplating the mural from its second level, one can observe do to the flagstone scope, the mural projects itself into the interior of the dining area creating a tabernacle effect where the iconographic experience becomes more intimate, closer to the viewer. The possibility of conjugating a diversity of views as a product of the different levels that constitute the mural´s emplacement, allows a sequence of readings which introduces a ludic element in the pictorial plane narrative dimension.
From ground level view, the mural acquires a characteristic common to large public spaces similar to Rome’s railway station atrium where the historical city generously welcomes incoming transients. In the case of the Dining Hall building, the combinations of the atrium´s double height, the east side illuminated portico and the lateral staircases, create a portent scenario whose superior apses is the mural.
MURAL EXTENSIONS
One of the most significant aspects of the mural in relation to its dissemination and propagation to different publics outside the school’s spheres is what the project refers to as “mural extensions”, understanding it as all event which acquires a dynamics that heightens the exploration of the mural, particularly when its perceived from a far away distance.
The following breakdowns are the different axis from where the mural will be gaining transcendence through time independent to its physical presence. These possibilities create a greater public integration together with the fact that the existence of the mural can be perceived as an international landmark which does not only cross physical borderlines, but also virtual ones.
LIMITED EDITIONS
Fine Art Limited Editions Portfolio: hardcover laminated with Strathmore 200g / separation sleeve / authenticity certificate.
Smaller format serial works are testimonial of the mural work meant to be distributed in a commemorative act to significant personalities during the mural’s inaugural ceremony. Later on they will constitute highly significant works destined for specific publics as institutional gifts, private collections or a general captive audience who identifies with the mural's meaning.
ARTIST BOOK
The project memoir is an artistic gender known as “artist book”. Different from conventional books, it’s understood as a work of art in itself. Although its functionality is very similar in the form of documenting an event, the memoir also represents the project´s conceptual evolution lingered to the genesis of a work of art. Also its important to keep in mind the project memoir will have a digital backup for its publication throughout Internet.
INTERNET
One of the most dynamic aspects of the mural is in the context of its international level propagation through Internet.
Taking into account mayor portals and social networks in the world, it can be structured as a first communicational resort, the triangulation between world’s largest image data base like Flickr; the most affluent social network like Facebook, which is at the same redirected to its partner professional network Linkedin and lastly, closing in with instantaneous communicator Twitter.
From this communicational platform, the mural will derive into a number of specialized portals whose objective is to position Santiago College as the protagonist of the artistic event, consequently worthy of a cultural patrimony. Amongst most distinguishable worldwide art news portals in the net is Artdaily.org for English speaking world and Enfocarte.com for Spanish speaking world.
PRINT MEDIA
Part of the communicational strategy include the elaboration of press releases not only destined to mayor local newspapers but also specialized press whose target are landmarks of specific topics directed to a selected public.
At an international level, it’s always important to cross borderlines pondering a local event as a milestone amongst other worldwide news of the same gender.
VIDEO PRODUCTION
Understanding the commemorative nature during campus Los Trapenses inaugural day, a video production is contemplated with a 10 minute maximum duration. Its propagation through You Tube, Google and Vimeo constitute the mayor traffic for a massive public.
GANTT CHART
CONCLUSION
We can state that the future vision of Santiago is in the domain of two contrasts. On one hand the destiny of districts like La Dehesa, whose main characteristic is a tendency towards a commercial axis associated with satellite cities.
Second, a financial district of exponential growth create enormous challenges, particularly in the area of leadership working environment destined for the future generations from alleged campus Los Trapenses.
The vision of anticipating both phenomena, not only participating in an unprecedented educational project of excellence, but also, now can be realized the possibility of creating a cultural instance capable of transcending in time as:
Spirits of the Mind
Santiago College One & Only
Santiago College One & Only
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario